Digital graphic design, image editing, audio editing, and video editing applications (hereafter collectively referred to as media content editing applications or media editing applications) provide graphical designers, media artists, and other users with the necessary tools to create a variety of media content. Examples of such applications include Final Cut Pro® and iMovie®, both sold by Apple Computer, Inc. These applications give users the ability to edit, combine, transition, overlay, and piece together different media content in a variety of manners to create a resulting media project. The resulting media project specifies a particular sequenced composition of any number of text, audio clips, images, or video content that is used to create a media presentation.
Various media editing applications facilitate such composition through electronic means. Specifically, a computer or other electronic device with a processor and computer readable storage medium executes the media content editing application. In so doing, the computer generates a graphical interface whereby designers digitally manipulate graphical representations of the media content to produce a desired result.
One difficulty in media editing is that a user cannot easily evaluate alternative content or changes to existing content in the context of the media project without altering the existing project data. At any given time, the user may wish to preview changes to the project before committing such changes to the project.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical graphical user interface (“GUI”) 100 of a media editing application. As shown, the GUI includes a timeline 110 that includes various media clips 120-130, a preview display pane 140 for viewing the project, and a collection of media content (alternatively referred to as a “media library”) 150 that is available to add to the project. In this example, a user wishes to evaluate the project after replacing the “Video_2” clip 130 in the timeline 110 with the “Video_3” clip 160 in a modified timeline 170 shown in the updated GUI 180.
As shown, the user has replaced the clip 130 with the “Video_3” clip 160. The application automatically overwrites both the display of the clip data in the timeline 170 and the underlying project data. The project data is conceptually represented as a set of media content. As shown, before modifying the project, the project data 185 includes representations of the three clips 120-130 in the example timeline 110. After modifying the project, by altering the timeline 160 to include a new clip 160 in place of a previously-included clip 130, the project data 190 has been modified to represent the three clips 120, 125, and 160 shown in the modified timeline 170.
By replacing the “Video_2” clip 130, the “Video_2” clip (or a reference thereto) is removed from the project data and any data associated with the “Video_2” clip is also lost. This associated data may include video effects data, start and stop points, audio enhancements, etc. Thus, if the user wishes to revert to the project as shown in timeline 110, the user must replace the “Video_3” clip 160 with the previously-displaced “Video_2” clip 130 (e.g., by manually replacing the content, performing a series of “undo” operations, or some other way). In addition, after restoring the “Video_2” clip the user may have to trim the content, add effects, or perform other editing operations to return the project to the state it was in before evaluating the “Video_3” clip 160. Furthermore, the user must repeat similar steps in order to evaluate other potential changes to the media project.
Thus, there is a need for a media editing application that allows a user to preview modifications to the media project and resulting media presentation without committing the modifications to the project or presentation.